New Delhi: Period products, contraception, childbirth, the impacts of childbirth, menopause-related issues. Being a woman comes with a serious monetary cost. In an impassioned Parliament speech, Australian MP Ali France put the lifetime bill at as much as AU$100,000. An Instagram reel of the speech attracted nearly a thousand comments from people, especially women, around the world.
France, 53, launched into the speech by announcing she was in her “menopause era” and had run through the entire gamut over the previous 40 years.
“I am appropriately frank and literally disinterested in your drama,” she said. In her speech, she praised the AU$800 million women’s health package launched by the Anthony Albanese-led Labor government last year. The government claims the package has helped more than 1 million women access cheaper medicines for contraception, endometriosis and menopause.
France said she had herself experienced the “real cost” of being a woman. This, she said, included not just the “physical costs” — health symptoms, pain, and being dismissed or ignored by health professionals — but also the “financial costs”.
Being a woman in Australia, she contended, costs anywhere between AU$35,000 and AU$100,000. Period products alone cost up to 19,000 dollars in the country. This cost of being a woman, she claimed, had never been recognised until the Labor government’s women’s health package.
The reel, posted on Monday, had many women chiming in.
“Yes!!!! Louder so we can hear it in the U.S,” said one comment, while another said, “Hopefully this will take root in Canada.”
Several comments also spoke about the cost of sanitary products and treatment for various conditions. “And now menopause drugs to keep me sane. Never ends,” said one comment. Another called the package a “transformative step forward for equity, relief, and basic human dignity.”
Also Read: Sucked out of plane window? Ryanair CEO says passenger doesn’t deserve ‘millions and millions’
What does the women’s health package cover?
The package has expanded access to subsidised treatments under Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), including new hormonal therapies, contraceptive pills and treatments for endometriosis. The Australian government has also rolled out other measures aimed at lowering women’s healthcare costs.
“All Australian women deserve to have their health issues taken seriously and given the priority they deserve…Our government is doing that, delivering women more choice, lower costs and better access to services and treatments,” said Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler in a release earlier this month.
During Women’s Health Week in Australia, held from 7-11 September, France also spoke about the package. She gave the example of a woman in her electorate who had been paying AU$120 a month for hormone replacement therapy, but now spends AU$25 every two months.
France has represented Dickson in the House of Representatives since 2025. She had previously contested the seat in 2019 and 2022, losing both times to Liberal Party MP Peter Dutton. Before entering politics, she worked as a journalist at The Courier-Mail. She is also a former para-athlete and has campaigned on disability rights as well as women’s issues.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)